


Starry Night

by Brightknightie



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Astronomy, Gen, HP: EWE, Post-Series, bereavement
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-19
Updated: 2010-02-19
Packaged: 2017-10-24 03:51:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/258668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brightknightie/pseuds/Brightknightie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry and Luna share a meteor shower.<br/>       <em>"Harry accepted the paper packet of dried dirigible plums.  He didn't know whether he was supposed to eat them or wear them or what, so he stepped into the kitchen for the sandwiches."</em><br/><span class="small">(Original: February 2010.)</span></p>
            </blockquote>





	Starry Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Leela](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leela/gifts).



The flat was dark when Harry Potter got home, which meant Ron was over at Hermione's again, and Kreacher at Grimmauld Place. That suited Harry. After a long day of Auror training, he had put his foot in his mouth in a lift at the Ministry with Draco Malfoy. Harry had then returned to the Aurors' obstacle course, running it over and over until his brain had stopped supplying the clever things he should have said — or looked or done — when he had the opportunity. Now, he just wanted to bolt a quick bite and black out into bed.

The lamps turned on automatically as he stepped inside. The charm was indistinguishable from a Muggle motion detector, except that it responded only to Harry, Ron and Kreacher. That distinction ran through Harry's mind as the light revealed Luna Lovegood sitting on his sofa, a yellow raincoat folded over her knees and her blonde hair straggling free of the loose plait down her back.

"Hello, Harry." Luna stood and began pulling on her coat. "If we leave now, we can still catch peak intensity."

"Sorry? Oh!" Harry gulped. The Quadrantids. He had promised weeks ago to watch a meteor shower with Luna tonight. Ron had teased him about it over breakfast this morning, unwilling to believe it wasn't a date. Harry had utterly forgotten. "Sorry."

"You're all over wrackspurts, aren't you?" Luna looked at his ears and reached into her coat pocket. "Here."

Harry accepted the paper packet of dried dirigible plums. His stomach rumbled. He didn't know whether he was supposed to eat them or wear them or what, so he stepped into the kitchen for the sandwiches Kreacher always left them. Ron wouldn't need his, anyway. " _Utredigo_!" Harry shrunk the sandwiches, slid them in with the dirigible plums, and put the packet in his jacket pocket. Over his shoulder, he asked, "Is it raining there?"

"It is a shower, after all." Luna pulled on a water-resistant hat in the same yellow as her coat and extended her hand. "Are you sure you don't want to side-along Apparate?"

"It's not necessary, is it?" Harry zipped up his jacket. Apparating with another person determining the destination still squeezed him inside out. "We're just going to that big hill between the Burrow and your d— where you grew up, yeah? I've been there before."

Luna dropped her arm. She smiled slightly, then Disapparated with a faint popping sound.

Harry took a deep breath and followed. The black nothing pressed on his eyes, his ears, his nose. He braced up and waited for it to be over. Luna offering to take his hand to side-along Apparate didn't mean Ron was right about her having a crush on him, did it? Ridiculous. Wasn't it? Harry emerged on the damp, starlit hillside. For something that took no time at all, Apparition took forever.

Luna had unfolded a bamboo mat and was sitting on it, looking up. Harry joined her, discovering to his relief that the mat had a built-in warming charm. After a moment, he began to spot the shooting stars streaming between the handle of the Big Dipper and the head of the constellation Draco. Harry's thoughts danced off sideways, and he yanked them back. "Do we count them?"

"If you like," Luna shrugged. "Is there a certain quantity you want to see?"

"No, I've just never watched a meteor shower before."

"Oh! Well, you get the best view if you lie back." She demonstrated. "You know from Astronomy class that they're fragments of cosmic debris, and the flash is them burning up in the atmosphere. That's what makes them special, you know. Oh, did you see that one?"

Harry lay back beside her and watched the bursts of light, like bolts of lightning, or the flash of a sword, or his first attempts at a Patronus. He thought he knew what Luna meant. Everything else in the sky was fixed, dependable and practically eternal. A meteor shower was a coincidence if not an accident, and transient. Different kinds of beauty.

Seize the moment. Life and stuff.

He wondered whether he should wish on one. And which wish he should make.

After a bit, Harry enlarged the sandwiches and offered Luna Ron's.

She sat up, crossing her legs as she took it, and then leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. "Thank you, Harry. My dad loved meteor storms, but he never watched any between Azkaban and when he died. It puts things back together a little for me. Oh, did you see that one?"

Harry shook his head and took a bite. Sometimes, a wand was just a wand. And frequently, Ron was as thick as oatmeal.

 

  
**— End —**   


**Author's Note:**

>  **Disclaimers.** Harry Potter belongs to Rowling and her associates. No infringement is intended. Everything is, of course, entirely fictional.
> 
>  **Inspiration.** This tiny story was one of a set of three gifts for Leela. I tried to reflect some of her favorite characters and relationships in her favorite fandom.
> 
>  **Thank you for reading!** Constructive criticism is welcome. Please let me know what you think.


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